Gove’s boring English GCSE blamed for plummeting A-level uptake

[noblegiraffe]

A survey of 200 schools has shown a collapse in English language A-level entry with some schools now with ‘unsustainable’ class sizes.

The blame is aimed at Gove’s English GCSE reform.

I’m not sure the aim of Gove’s ‘more rigorous’ GCSEs was to turn pupils off from further academic study, but here we are.

The response from the DfE is “The Department for Education's position is that the new GCSEs are more rigorous, prepare pupils for the world of work and were implemented after a long and careful process of reform.”

Which is bloody hilarious for anyone who remembers the implementation of the new GCSEs. Long and careful the process was most definitely not.

www.tes.com/news/schools-dropping-level-english-due-tedious-gcse

One for @piggywaspushed

English Language A Level has never been one of the big classic subjects anyway. It was always English Literature that was the biggie. Many schools don't offer English Language A Level.

It also appears that English Language A Level is a completely different subject from GCSE. It looks more like Linguistics and Communication Studies and less like a course in the grammatical rules of the English language.

Actually Genevieva is probably onto something, rename it as she suggests and I bet uptake would increase dramatically.
(As a scientist I never think the push for stem is anything like big enough though)

I was always amazing at English as a little kid, was best in the class in year seven/eight. Was also good at maths. I hated GCSE English (did it less than five years ago). I feel like my teacher was so disillusioned, he just gave us strict formulaic structures for all our essays, and it destroyed me to try and structure my thoughts in that way.
Ended up taking sciences because I could handle answering science questions in a formulaic way, because that's how science is. That's not how English is meant to be.

Currently doing a science degree.

I still love English. My friend writes fiction, and I absolutely love editing for her. We'll spend fifteen minutes discussing whether a certain sentence describing something as simple as a table ought to have a dash in the middle, or if we should split it up into two sentences, or merge it into the next sentence. Most people would find it noting as hell, but I love it. And yet I couldn't stand GCSE English.

I know a lot of people would say STEM subjects are more useful, but thing is, I took A level maths with a whole bunch of people who took it "because it was useful." And the thing is, if you don't have the brain for it, it's horrendous. It broke my heart to watch people I knew struggle for hours trying to understand something they absolutely hated, when if they'd taken humanities subjects, they'd have got much better grades and it would probably have set them up for a much better future. Going into STEM isn't "useful" if the majority of the people in STEM have much more natural ability than you.

^boring, not noting

I did English language a level back in 2000. I loved it. It was one of the most interesting things I have ever done.

We don't do Language at A level (offered Creative Writing as an extra until Gove got rid). However, Lit numbers were up this year back up to three sets. There is, however, a real issue with many parents telling their children to take 'more useful' subjects.

Stem is soul destroying if you aren't that way inclined. Art, literature, philosophy and music should be valued as highly.

Ds1 is struggling to decide between A level Eng Lang v Eng Lit. So I'll come back and read later.

Language is easier than Literature at A level. Thats why our local not great comp does combined, not pure Literature.

Very true @Trewser we have a variety of students who struggle through Maths, Chemistry and Physics. They would be much better off doing a different course. But they swallowed the STEM propaganda.

The language in Lang Lit is nothing like Eng Lang A Level trewser .It's not exactly a hybrid A Level.

star that's a helpful perspective and good to hear a STEM voice.

Well, according to the head of English there, they do lit/lang as its much more straightforward to get higher grades in.

This makes me so appreciative of Dd’s School, she’s doing Eng Lit at A level and is planning to study it for her degree. There are two classes of 8 in her school, which given there are a huge number of future medics is brilliant. It is however an all girls grammar, so not your average school.

Yes, it may well be (not sure the stats back that up) but it's not specifically because the lang bit is easier. Not imo anyway! It is possible it's because the lit bit is more accessible if anything.

That's certainly true poptarts! How on earth do they afford two classes of 8!? That would definitely be one class in most state schools.

On another note, I eat pop tarts! Love em!

27 girls doing English Lit at dds school and it's a highly regarded subject. The Hod is brilliant and we are lucky to have her. But it's a private school. Also lots of STEM but dd not particularly interested and got totally fed up with being pushed towards engineering. If dd1s uni is anythjng to go by, we aren't ever goong to be short of engineers. Every student and his dog seems to be doing it.

My brother is an English teacher. There’s a massive shortage of English teachers because moral is rock bottom. The curriculum, set by politicians, is impossible to teach. The teachers are trying to teach literature that the children don’t like and don’t understand.

Discipline in schools is an utter joke. A child threatened my brother and then broke the classroom door. His punishment was a day off school.

I feel really depressed about the state of our education.

Do they do IGCSE or GCSE trewser ?

The teachers are trying to teach literature that the children don’t like and don’t understand
I agree - the books don't seem to have changed since I did it 35 years ago!

IGCSE. The books were really interesting and no Shakespeare (although they studied the Tempest anyway).

My Ds was identified as ‘gifted and talented’ at English in Yr 7&8 and was a keen reader.

By Yr 11 he was still categorised as a high achiever / top set English student but the GCSE had sucked every ounce of joy out of it for him. He just lost all motivation. He got 8,9, A, A* for all his GCSEs except Literature: a 6. And has not read a novel since.
Did maths and science A levels.

At our school Eng Lit had a bit of an increase this year. We lose out to our powerhouse of an Economics department though, which is huge.

Trewser: I agree. And it is affecting Uni grades. Ds has friends who got into Oxbridge to do English on AAB whereas some RG Unis require A*AA for STEM.

When I went to Uni (Eng Lit) it was super competitive to do an English degree because everyone wanted to it. I am a very mature MN er so that was a looong time ago.